General Question

My monitor fails to start up when I turn my PC on?

My monitor has recently stopped turning on whenever I start up my PC. I have replaced the cables connecting the monitor to the graphics card, plugged the cable into a different socket on the graphics card and even reseated the graphics card itself and yet the screen still fails to start up. It is not a problem with the monitor as it starts up fine when connected to my laptop. Does anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing this?

Does the computer itself make any particular “beeping” noises as you start it?

One part of every computer’s POST (Power-On Self Test) is to detect and test its interfaces (keyboard, mouse and monitor, among others if you have them) and report on status. Obviously, since a malfunctioning monitor / graphics card won’t allow you to see those results, the BIOS designers have designed aural signals (beeps) to alert users of the POST results.

You may be able to research what your particular POST tones are trying to tell you. It should be in a manual, if you have one for the computer (and if it’s comprehensive enough).

Also, as an addendum to @CWOTUS‘s post, it might not be necessary to go that in depth, but even just listening if the OS actually starts up would be a good indication. If the computer doesn’t even boot up it might be an entirely unrelated problem that causes the GFX card not to have anything to show.

@CWOTUS@Thammuz@dabbler
It makes no beeping noises and, to be honest (as far as I can tell from listening to it), it sounds like a perfectly normal start up. Everything seems to be starting up as usual and the fans all spin (including the CPU and graphics card fans)

Any blinking lights ? As the system wakes up, per @CWOTUS‘s descriptions. A lot of motherboards have replaced the beeps with lights or a light that blinks in diagnostic sequences.
Can you determine what kind of motherboard you have? If so you might be able to get some diagnostic info from lights.

Besides the graphics card as @Thammuz has suggested possible, it can be RAM.
If you haven’t reseated the RAM chips try that. Also, assuming you have multiple RAM chips, you can try taking them all out and replacing only one at a time.
Some motherboards require sets of two mem chips be installed at all times, but most do not any more. If you can get ahold of motherboard documentation you could find that there is a slot #0 that you would put a single chip into, and #1 the next etc. although again a lot of motherboards don’t care what slot the RAM is in.

I had a shoebox Shuttle freeze up completely when one of the mem slots on the motherboard stopped working but with the other slot and whatever RAM chip it worked just fine. (Replaced the mobo last summer). Worth a try.

Do you have an onboard graphics adapter on the motherboard? That would at least let you see the boot sequence. There would be a separate video out connector on the back of your machine if there you have a graphics card and an onboard. Pull out your regular graphics card completely and hook the monitor up to the onboard connector and try a boot.